ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES

A STUDY OF GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY THEORY

J Sutomo
Universitas Stikubank Semarang
Abstract
English phonological processes happen both in word and phrase levels. In
the word level, it occurs when a morpheme is combined with another
morpheme. One of the sound will experience a change because of the
influence of the other morpheme. The English phonological process also
occurs in a phrase level. This change is caused by the influence of
syntactic factors. This study aims at explaining the forms of phonological
processes of English language that occur in word level, concerning the
processes of assimilation and some other morpho-phonemic changes. In
explaining the phonological processes, the writer uses the Generative
Phonology Theory which is firstly introduced by Noam Chomsky in 1957.
The Generative School of Phonology was founded by Noam Chomsky in
the late 1950s. Its basic premises are that phonological structure reflects
the linguistic competence of the individual native speaker to compute a
phonetic representation for the potentially infinite number of sentences
generated by the syntactic component of the grammar.
Key words: phonological processes, assimilation, morpho-phonemic
changes, generative phonology, linguistic competence.
INTRODUCTION
One of the aspects of language is speech sound. The study of speech sound in
language is called phonology. Each language has its own speech sound structure which
differ from one language to another language. By learning the speech sound structure of
language, not only can we recognize and understand how to pronounce a word of a
language correctly, but can also produce the word using correct pronunciation.
Furthermore, we will be able to explain why we should pronounce it that way.
In his book English Phonetics, Ramelan (1994:2) says when a student wants to
learn a foreign language, in this case, English, he will have to learn to speak it. He has to
try to speak in the way the native speakers speak the language. This can be achieve by
closely imitating and mimicking them untirelessly until his pronunciation is satisfactory
and acceptable to them. Ramelan (1994:3) also said that above all, the student has to be
able to discriminate the contastive sound units that distinguish one utterance from
another, both on the production level and on the recognition level.
As it is mentioned before, the study of speech sound structure of language is
called phonology. Phonology is a branch science of linguistics, the study of language in
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general. Odden (2005: 2) states that phonology is one of the core fields that composes the
discipline of linguistics, which is defined as the scientific study of language structure.
The speech sounds of language that we study in phonology are symblolic sounds
that represent the physical sounds of language. Odden (2005:2) says that the point which
is most important to appreciate at this moment is that the sounds which phonology is
concerned with are symbolic sounds they are cognitive abstractions, which represent
but are not the same as physical sounds.
What is the difference between phonetics and phonology? Phonetics is the study
of speech sounds which concerns with the actual physical sounds as it is spoken by
human speech organs, while phonology concerns with rules of speech sound structure of
language. Odden (2005:2) says that a common characterization of the difference between
phonetics and phonology is that phonetics deals with actual physical sounds as they are
manifested in human speech, and concentrates on acoustic waveforms, formant values,
measurements of duration measured in milliseconds, of amplitude and frequency, or in
the physical principles underlying the production of sounds, which involves the study of
resonances and the study of the muscles and other articulatory structures used to produce
physical sounds. On the other hand, phonology, it is said, is an abstract cognitive system
dealing with rules in a mental grammar: principles of subconscious thought as they
relate to language sound.
Studying phonology concerns with phonetics, the study of speech sounds as actual
physical sounds, and phonemics, the study of speech sounds as signaling units. Ramelan
(1994:1) states that the study of speech sounds may be carried out from different
viewpoints. When we study speech sounds as sounds, without regard to their function as
signaling units of language, the science is called phonetic. When we study speech
sound with a view to finding out the significant units of sounds in a given language, the
science is called phonemic.
Talking about phonetics and phonemics, it concerns with the rules of combining
speech sounds of language. There are rules of combining speech sounds of language,
and some rules which are applicable to certain language might not be applicable to
another language. Odden (2005:3) convinces that another aspect of language sound which
a phonological analysis would take account of is that in any given language, certain
combinations of sounds are allowed, but other combinations are systematically
impossible.
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Phonological rules are the rules of combining speech sound structure of certain
language, these rules can be created by conducting a phonological process in the aspects
of the language being studied. English phonological processes happen both in word and
phrase levels. In the word level, it occurs when a morpheme is combined with another
morpheme. One of the sound will experience a change because of the influence of the
other morpheme. The English phonological process also occurs in a phrase level. This
change is caused by the influence of syntactic factors.
The purpose of this article is explaining the forms of phonological processes of
English language that occur in word level, concerning the processes of assimilation and
some other morpho-phonemic changes. In explaining the phonological processes, the
writer uses the Generative Phonology Theory which is firstly introduced by Noam
Chomsky in 1957. As its name suggests, this theory explains a lot of syntactic concepts,
namely the principles and processes of developing sentences in a language.
Phonological processes are categorized as syllable structure processes,
substitution processes, or assimilatory processes. Syllable structure processes describe
those sound changes that affect the structure of the syllable. Substitution processes
describe those sound changes in which one sound class is replaced by another.
Assimilatory processes describe changes in which a sound becomes similar to, or is
inuenced by, a neighboring sound of an utterance. (www. ablongman.com)
GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY THEORY
Generative phonology theory is a component of generative grammar that assigns
the correct phonetic representations to utterances in such a way as to reflect a native
speakers internalized grammar. Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle founded the
Generative School of Phonology in the late 1950s. Its basic premises are that
phonological structure reflects the linguistic competence of the individual native speaker
to compute a phonetic representation for the potentially infinite number of sentences
generated by the syntactic component of the grammar and that this competence can be
investigated in a serious scientific fashion. The generative point of view has become
dominant in the field of linguistics and has had varying degrees of influence on other
cognitive sciences. (Kenstowicz: http://web.mit.edu).
Phonological Rules
I. Derivations and underlying representations:
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a. A systematic modification of stored representations assembled into larger
constituents undergoes systematic modification via a class of mental operations.
b. An underlying or phonological representation will contain all and only the
unpredictable (distinctive feature) information for each lexical item.
c. Predictable features of pronunciation are added to the underlying phonological
representation by grammatical rules and principles.
d. These rules operate on the basis of the information in the lexical items
phonological representation on an underlying form and the context in which it is
located.
II. Phonological Rules are of two types:
Allophonic rules: fill in qualities of pronunciation that are absent in the lexical forms of
morphemes but are required by their circumstances in speech, like the aspiration of word-
initial /k/ in coats and the rounding of the word-initial /r/ of rules.
English stop aspiration:
Rule 1: Voiceless stops are aspirated when in initial stressed syllables
Rule 2: Nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs have at least one stressed vowel.
PHONOLOGICAL PROCESS
Assimilation
Assimilation is the process of changing one phoneme into another phoneme as the
result of putting morphemes together (Ramelan, 1994: 171). Assimilation is one type of
morpho-phonemic changes. On the basis of which sound influences the assimilated
sound, we distinguish two kinds of assimilation: progressive assimilation, when the
change of one sound into another one is influenced by a preceding sound, and regressive
assimilation, when it is influenced by the following sound (Ramelan, 1994: 172). With
regard to the types of changes that the assimilated sounds undergo, we can distinguish
assimilation of place of articulation which involves a change in place of articulation,
assimilation of manner of articulation which involves a change in the manner of
articulating the consonants, and assimilation of voice involves a change in the voicing of
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the assimilated sound (Ramelan, 1994:173). Assimilation is said to be complete when the
assimilated sound is completely changed into the same sound as the sound that affects the
change, and it is said to be partial when the change is not complete, but only partial
(Ramelan, 1994: 174).
A. Regressive Assimilation.
As it is stated above, the regressive assimilation occurs when the change of one
sound into another one is influenced by the following sound.
Consider the following data:
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Based on the phonological features of the consonants, the phonological process can be
written as follows:
There is only one different feature between phonemes /n/ and /m/, namely the coronal:
[+cor] is the sounds of dental, alveolar, palato-alveolar, and palatal, while [-cor] is the
sounds of labial, velar, uvular, and faringal. Meanwhile, /n/, /m/, and /p/ have the same
feature in that they are all consonantal and anterior. [+cons] is the obstruent sounds,
fricative and africate sounds, nasal and liquid sounds. [+ant] is the sounds of labial,
dental and alveolar. The phoneme /b/ which is voiced bilabial plosive is placed at the
same position as the phoneme /p/.
The prefix [in-] becomes [im-] in impossible, improbable, improper, impure, impatient,
imperfect, and imbalance because it is influenced by the following sound /p/ or /b/
(voiceless/voiced bilabial plosive) of the following morpheme. This is called regressive
assimilation as the change of one sound into another is influenced by the following
sound. With regard to the type of changes: [in-] in impossible, improbable, improper,
impure, impatient, imperfect, and imbalance is replaced by [im-] before words beginning
with bilabial plosive. There is a change form /n/into /m/, therefore it is called an
assimilation of place of articulation: alveolar nasal becomes bilabial nasal.
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B. Progressive Assimilation.
As has been mentioned before, progressive assimilation occurs when the change of
one sound into another one is influenced by a preceding sound.
Look at the following data:
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Other Morpho-phonemic Changes
Morphemes can undergo morpho-phonemic changes when they are combined with other
morphemes. One type of these changes is called assimilation as explained above.
Here are other types of morpho-phonemic changes:
1. Elision
This dropping of sound takes place especially because morphemes are put close to
each other and also because of their occurances in unstressed syllables or in rapid
speech.(Ramelan,1977: 174). According to Roach (1983:108) under certain
circumstances sounds disappear, or in a certain circumstances a phoneme may be
realized as zero, or have zero realisation; elision is typical of rapid, casual speech;
the process of change in phoneme realisations produced by changing the speed
and casualness of speech, which is sometimes called gradation.
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CONCLUSION
As generative phonology theoretically suggests, one rule can apply in many other
niches of the same phonological context, and this supports a theory that language is really
rule-governed behavior. By learning assimilations. regressive and progressive, and other
morpho-phonemic changes such as elision and addition of sounds, we will get better
understanding on the phonological changes which occur when two sounds are linked
together. When we know for sure the changes occurred in certain combinations, it will
make us more confident in teaching English language to our students, especially
concerning the assimilation, elision and addition of sounds.
REFERENCES
Cambridge Advance Learners Dictionary, third edition, online dictionary.
Chomsky, N. (1962). Current issues in linguistic theory. The Hague: Mouton.
Kenstowicz , Michael Generative Phonology Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Linguistics MIT 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA
02139 United States (https://www. ucalgary.ca/dflynn/files/dflynn/ Kenstowicz.
pdf, accessed May 2012)
Odden, David (2005), Introducing Phonology, Cambridge University Press, New york.
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Ramelan, Prof. Dr.M.A. (1994) English Phonetics. UPT UNNES PRESS, 2 Kelud Raya
Street, Semarang, Indonesia
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsGenerativePhonology.h
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THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
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